Orpheus
by Rookwood
Summary: Ch 3 up! Sirius Black is gone. Beyond the Veil, believed to be dead... But what if there were a way to save him? How far would Harry go to save Sirius? How far would the last Marauder go to save one of his best friends? Most important, does Sirius WANT to
1. Prologue

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He was walking down a long, darkened corridor. He had been walking for a very long time, but he seemed no nearer to his goal. He began to run. When he reached the door, he was winded, and had a painful stitch in his side - but he was almost there! He put his hand up to the door, and as though waiting for him to come, it swung open.

Yes! The circular central chamber! He stepped inside, onto the shiny black marble floor, and gazed around at the handle-less, unmarked black doors. He was finally inside - finally, after so long…. Suddenly the chamber began to rotate, and the burning candles on the black walls became blue streaks around him. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the chamber ceased its revolution.

This time, he knew what to do. He called out the name of the chamber he needed to find. A door to his left opened - he stepped forward and entered the rectangular room, looking down twenty feet to his goal. Quickly he moved down the stone steps, narrowly avoiding slipping off of the crumbled edge where Lucius Malfoy's spell had hit it.

He slowed as he reached the dais, he could hear them whispering now - so close….He halted in front of a large, ancient looking stone archway, cracked and crumbling. It was hung with a black veil, which fluttered constantly in an unseen breeze. He stepped forward, raised his hand to push the veil aside….

He felt a rush of cold, dank air on his face, and suddenly he was being pulled forward, by a force much stronger than himself - he struggled to step backward, he was painfully afraid, but at the same time, he wanted to keep going. He could just surrender, be pulled in…so easy…NO! He tried once more to break free - he couldn't - he fell -

"SIRIUS!"


	2. Chapter 1

Harry Potter woke with a start, twisted in rope-like tangles of sweat-soaked sheet, in a dark bedroom of Number 12, Grimmauld Place. He took a deep, shuddering breath and began to disentangle himself from his sheet. Across the room, Ron Weasley muttered in his sleep and rolled over, hitting the wall with a dull thud. With a sigh, Harry rolled over, but he could not sleep.

Morning came sooner than Harry had thought it would. There was a faint scent of breakfast coming from the kitchen - Mrs. Weasley was up already. Ron stretched, grunted "G'morning Harry," and yawned widely.

Harry yawned, too. "Hey - er - Ron?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you, er, did I - last night, did you hear anything odd?"

"No, why?" said Ron, looking puzzled. "Was Kreacher in here or something? If he was I'll murder him, the little b-"

"Actually, Harry, I heard something last night." said Hermione from the doorway. She walked in and sat on the end of Ron's bed. "You yelled in your sleep again. You were dreaming about Sirius."

Harry said nothing. The summer was almost over - nearly two months had passed since Harry had been deceived by Lord Voldemort and had lead his friends and fellow students Neville, Hermione, Ron, Luna, and Ginny into the Department of Mysteries. Two months it had been since he had faced Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters - and escaped once again. But none of that mattered. It had been, for Harry, two months since he had lost the closest thing to a father he had ever known. Sirius.

And it had been his fault. No matter what Dumbledore said, it was _his fault._

He wanted desperately to talk about Sirius, but at the same time he couldn't bear it. Even talking to Ron and Hermione was hard. And they were his two best friends who had helped him rescue Sirius from a fate worse than death in their third year at Hogwarts.

He looked up, and saw Hermione and Ron regarding him with concerned expressions.

"Harry, mate," began Ron, "You know you can talk to us. We understand."

"Do you?" said Harry sharply. "I suppose you both know just how I feel, right?"

"Harry," said Hermione reluctantly, "We miss Sirius, too."

"You think you do, yeah?" said Harry in a dangerously low voice. "You both know how it feels? HOW IT IS TO LOSE THE CLOSEST THING TO A PARENT YOU'VE EVER HAD?"

He hadn't meant to start shouting. "Sorry." He muttered, not meeting their eyes.

"I think you need to talk about it, Harry. Otherwise you'll never heal. I'm going down to breakfast." Hermione stated. She left abruptly and clattered down the stairs.

"Sorry, Ron, I -"

"S'ok," said Ron gruffly, "Maybe I don't understand. But you're my best mate Harry, so I'm still going to try." With that he rose and followed Hermione to the kitchen, with Harry following close behind.

"In your pajamas? Still!" Molly Weasley raised her eyebrows, tossing toast to their plates as they sat down. "Eat your toast! Hurry! Get a move on! We're going to Diagon Alley today for your school things!"

Fifteen minutes later, Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Ginny were dressed and waiting in the entrance way.

"All ready? Good, good…. We just have to wait for Remus and Tonks - they're coming with us." Molly said.

At half past ten, they were on their way.


	3. Chapter 2

They arrived at the Leaky Cauldron at quarter past twelve. Mrs. Weasley was flushed and upset at having to use the Muggle underground to travel, Tonks was humming pleasantly, and Lupin looked mildly amused at the pink-and-green striped hair Tonks was sporting.

"Time for another year at Hogwarts, then Molly?" said Tom, the old and quite toothless bartender, as they entered the grungy pub.

"Amazing, isn't it?" asked Mrs. Weasley. "Just yesterday it seems they were fighting over toy broomsticks and Drooble's Blowing gum. 'Mummy, _look!_ My bubble is bigger than his! Look!' And now, look! Only Ron and Ginny left at school!"

"Mum! Why…!" Ron complained as they walked out to the brick wall behind the pub.

"What, Ron?" Mrs. Weasley said, "You always _did _fight with George about everything…."

"So," said Lupin, smiling as he pulled out his wand and tapped the bricks, "Who's planning on visiting Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes?"

Mrs. Weasley's jaw tightened, Ginny and Harry grinned, Ron's eyes lit up, and Hermione suppressed a smile. They were all remembering Fred and George's magnificent departure from Hogwarts last year, when they had left to open their joke shop. Mrs. Weasley, though, didn't seem to find it as magnificent as everyone else did. She looked as though she might develop a twitch.

"I cannot believe," she said, breathing hard through her nose, "that they did that!"

"Oh, Mum, please," sighed Ginny. "You _know _you're proud of them!"

"Come on, Ron, Harry, let's get our school stuff first - the list says we need the _Standard Book of Spells (Gra-" _Hermione said quickly.

"Come off it Hermione, we have to go visit Fred and George!" Ginny said, and soon they were all standing in front of number ninety-three, Diagon Alley.

"WICKED!" Ginny exclaimed.

"Wow," said Harry.

"Yeah," agreed Ron.

"Oh, my." said Hermione. "No wonder they were able to afford those… unique jackets."

If the store was packed full of Fred and George's inventions - Skiving Snackboxes, wonderfully realistic fake wands, Weaselys' Wildfire Whiz-bang fireworks - it was nothing to the people packed into the store. Mainly, Harry observed, there were Hogwarts students - many of whom he recognized. But to his surprise, there were also many full grown Witches and Wizards roaming the shop, exclaiming excitedly over the products.

They craned their necks over the top of the crowd, trying to catch a glimpse of flaming Weasley hair.

"RON!" George bellowed.

"Harry!" yelled Fred.

"And Ginny, and Hermione too." said George.

"What?" said Fred, "Hermione the Prefect in a _joke shop?_"

"Perhaps our little brother Ron the Prefect has been a bad influence." George grinned.

Fred put a smarmy grin on his face and affected an accent.

"What can we do for you today? I assure you we stock nothing but the finest for all your mischief-causing needs…."

"How about giving us some stuff for free?" said Ron, eyeing the Skiving Snackboxes.

They left Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes an hour later, laden with Fred and George's favourite inventions - many of which were free, but not all.

"Imagine the nerve!" Ron said indignantly. "I can understand making you two pay-" he jerked his head at Hermione and Harry "-but their own siblings? Incredible."

"They do have to turn a profit you know. Now, let's get our new school books! We have a Defense Against the Dark Arts text that looks especially good." Hermione said, as she herded them towards Flourish Blotts.

They found Mrs. Weasley and Lupin in Flourish Blotts. Lupin was examining a book on Werewolves with a look of deepening disgust, but Mrs. Weasley was looking worried.  
"There you are! Where have you been? We've been here waiting for you!" Then she caught sight of the packages. She raised her eyebrows and looked at the ceiling hopelessly. "I should have known."

After a half an hour in Flourish Blotts, Mrs. Weasley had everyone double-check their lists, and make sure they had got everything into their bags. She then pointed them towards Madam Malkin's, telling Ron in particular that he needed his robes lengthened.

Harry needed all new robes, as did Hermione. Ginny had grown so much that she had to have new robes, too. Ron looked bleakly at his old robes, and sighed heavily when Ginny tried on her new robes to show everyone.

Back at Flourish Blott's, two and a half hours later, they found Mrs. Weasley and Remus again.

"Are we staying for dinner, Mum?" Ginny asked.

"I - I wasn't planning on it, dear, but - Oh, Remus! Where has Tonks gone off too?" answered Mrs. Weasley distractedly.

"Very good question - ah! Wait, there she is." Remus smiled, as he saw Tonks meandering up the alleyway towards them, a large ice cream in hand. "She's been at Florian Fortescue's, obviously."

"Oh, lovely. Well, at least that's one less for dinner!" Mrs. Weasley huffed.

The last time Harry had eaten dinner at the Leaky Cauldron, he had been about to start his third year at Hogwarts. He vividly remembered hearing Mr. And Mrs. Weasley arguing about whether or not he should be told about Sirius. Of course, at that time, nearly everyone in the Wizarding community had thought Sirius a murderer - and nearly everyone believed he was after Harry.

Harry tried to thrust aside this painful recollection of Sirius so as to be pleasant at dinner. Tom pushed two extra chairs to the table, and soon Harry's mind was occupied with eating.

Dinner was lengthy, and soon it was time to leave for 12 Grimmauld place. "Mind you all sleep well! Tomorrow morning, you have to pack your trunks!" reminded Mrs. Weasley.


	4. Chapter 3

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He was in the rectangular chamber again - he was falling - he was crashing hard on every stone step all the way down to the dais. Death Eaters, hooded and masked, were surrounding him - laughing at him. Lucius Malfoy's cold, drawling voice drifted to him from the depths of his mind:

"Potter, your race is run…"

He was clutching the prophecy in one hand, his wand in the other - trying with all his might to think, willing himself to think. He didn't have a chance, he knew it deep in himself, no one could help him, he was alone -

Neville's voice, foolishly brave:

"He's dot alone! He's still god be!"

…Neville's screams as Bellatrix Lestrange hit him with the same Unforgivable Curse that had taken his parents' sanity -

Then the sound of two doors bursting open - five more people sprinting into the chamber: Lupin, Moody, Tonks, Kingsley, and Sirius.

Sirius!

Spells were raining down upon the dais - a full-fledged battle was beginning - Order of the Phoenix dueling against the Death Eaters.

"Harry, take the prophecy, grab Neville, and run!"

Sirius sprinting to meet Bellatrix - Sirius laughing at her -

"Come on, you can do better than that!"

Suddenly his brain heaved itself into motion - he had to stop it, that's why he was back here - he could save Sirius -

Sirius was falling backward through the arch - beyond the veil…

"SIRIUS!"

He was running, now, he had to get to him, this time he could do it - Lupin caught him around the chest -

"There's nothing you can do, Harry "

"SIRIUS!"

"He can't come back, Harry, he can't come back, because he's d"

"SIRIUS!"


End file.
